It's a dreary, rainy morning here at Nationals Park. The tarp is on the field and will likely stay there for a while. But I expect there to be baseball today, for two reasons:

1) This is the Diamondbacks' last scheduled game in D.C. this season.

2) Stephen Strasburg is scheduled to pitch.

This will be Strasburg's first appearance since his shaky outing Tuesday against the Marlins in his return from the disabled list, and all eyes will be on the rookie to see how he responds.

Another rookie right-hander who has gotten far less publicity than Strasburg, Barry Enright, starts for the Diamondbacks. Enright beat the Nats 10 days ago in Arizona, allowing two runs over six innings.

Like this:

SS needs to rebound for this team to start a winning streak. Bigger worry is the offense which has been quiet most of the past two series. I am really disappointed in our 3-4-5 hitters lately, especially Dunn and Zimm given that Hammer is dealing with an injury. Last night with Desmond on 2nd and non outs, our 3-4-5 guys couldn't get him across the home plate. That's embarrassing. i hope they can do a better job againt Enright tonight, better than 2 runs in six innings.

The Nats year will be judged by signing Harper and Dunn. Not sure if that is fair but I believe it is true. Not signing Dunn means that Nats will not be offensively competitive for several more season. There just are not going to be any better free agent hitters this off-season. Not signing Harper means they will have no future hitters in their system. Failure to sign both will mean people will not come to the park except for maybe Strasburg games and even those are dropping some.

Just because it isn't "official", doesn't mean it didn't get done. Because Cole's signing is a record and well above slot, Selig probably wants them to hold the announcement until the deadline. And considering they spent $2 million on him, I can't imagine they won't get Harper done. Dunn on the hand… They're acting like they'd just rather have the draft picks then lock up one of the best power hitters in the game.

The Nats should use the following line-up for most of the remaining season. This would give everyone a read on their future.1-Morgan LF When he returns Wednesday2-Bernadina RF 3-Zimmerman 3B4-Dunn 1B or Mors5-Desmond SS6-Maxwell CF We need to see if he can hit over an extended period.7-Pudge C Bring up Ramos and get his feet wet8-Gonzales 2B or Esponsia to see what he can do at SS and 2BWe know what we have in Harris, Kennedy, (Willinham can pinch hit only for the rest of the season.) Neives can be the bull pen catcher.This season is over (we know we are cellar dwellers again) and we need to find out about some of the other guys. We also have to put a stop to Double Switch Riggleman and make him let these guys play against both left and right. handed pitchers. Double Switch would have benched Babe Ruth against left handers.

Assuming that the Nats and the Dunn team are 1 year and $15-20 million apart, maybe they ought to be thinking about the $15 million they threw away on Jason Marquis!They need Dunn, more than Dunn needs them.

Can we please stop harping on this Dibble comment about two chatty cathys he did not say all female fans were disinterested he talked about two specific individuals and if those individuals are too stupid to conme forward and defend their actions then this story does not deserve the light of day that certain special interest bloggers are giving it…those people make Nats320 look like an informative blog!

So which rookie pitcher had the better outing? Enright, who entered the game with a better ERA than Strasburg's, was effective, except for one pitch. And please don't cite Strasburg's strikeouts. The Diamondbacks lead the world in striking out. By a mile.

Maybe all us Michael Morse fans (& I'm one) should admit that Riggleman might have been doing the right thing in the way he was handling Morse — given that MM is now 1 for his last 22. Maybe he DOES play better in when he plays infrequently.

Mark,I was at the game. As the Man Who Knows, what do you know about the people who track the "K's" under the Miller Light sign at the scoreboard? Are they random fans? They seem to be at every game. BTW, I wore my Insider shirt and was able to sing your praises to a couple of people who asked.

I was at the game and moderately encouraged by Morse's ABs. Tried to go to RF his 1st time and lined out. Was robbed by Drew his next AB on as good a play going in the hole as you'll see by a SS. One of the drawbacks of being at the game of course is that we're never shown replays of nice plays by the opposition–would like to have seen that one again.

Mark,What do you think is the chance that the decision not to put Strasburg back in for the sixth had some relationship to the extra time he sat out waiting for security to get the idiots off the field? (sure, stand up for things you believe in, but preferably in ways that will actually do some good rather than just making you look stupid) I know it wasn't a terribly long delay, but after having Stras bat for himself, my friends and I were just looking for SOME sort of reason to then turn around and pull him….

Dryw: That's exactly what happened. Riggleman was planning to send Strasburg back out to start the 6th, but the extended delay from the protest (combined with the fact he was at 85 pitches and is still on a shorter leash coming back from the DL stint) prompted the manager to pull the plug at that point. I'll have Riggleman's full explanation shortly in a story I'm writing for CSNwashington.com.